


Mending the Mind

by Authoranna



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Amnesia, F/M, Gen, Knitting, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, the force can do terrible things to a mind, write through
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24205561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Authoranna/pseuds/Authoranna
Summary: A write through of the 2003 video game The Knights of the Old Republic with my own twists. The amnesiac Revan, known as Lisona Dana, crashes on Taris with Carth Onasi and the two work together to find Bastila Shan while also trying to hide in plain sight on a Sith-quarantined planet.This was began in 2018 and was abandoned for a while, so the first few chapters are all written.Originally posted to wattpad, now posted here and will be updated only on AO3.
Relationships: Carth Onasi/Female Revan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

Alarms blaring, the bed shook as the woman opened her eyes in shock. She sat up quickly as the shaking got worse. The door slid open haphazardly, the man stumbling through the door as the ship rocked.

“We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up- we don't have much time!” He yelled, putting a steadying hand on the wall behind him.

The woman stood up, confusion and panic flashing across her face in equal measure before she spoke.

“Endar Spire? What the frack is going on? Who are you?” She asked.

“Trask Ulgo. I'm your bunkmate; opposite rotations means we never meet. We need to get to the Bridge. Now gear up!”

The woman pulled her vest on, grabbing her weapons from the footlocker at the end of her bed.

_ A short sword and a pistol. Fine weaponry I've got,  _ she thought. She holstered the pistol, choosing the blade instead.  _ This doesn't feel right, though. Did I lose my own sword somehow? This feels... off. _

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, pushing that line of thinking to the side to deal with in a less life-threatening moment. She shouldered the small satchel she found in the footlocker as well after sliding her datapad in; she'd look through the bag later. “I'm ready. Lead the way, Ulgo.”

As they stepped out of the once locked-down room, the woman's belt trilled. She looked at it in confusion for a second before pulling the personal communicator off and flicking it on.

“This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position, we can't hold out much longer! All hands to the bridge!” A voice crackled over the device.

It definitely was a man's voice, the woman could tell  **that** over the noise of the battle, but the words were fuzzy. She instantly knew it was a voice to be obeyed, though she couldn't tell if that was from the tone of voice or an instinct to follow whoever had more of their shit together than she did.

“Who's Onasi?” She asked her companion. He had already started working on opening the next set of locked doors, and he barely spared a glance at her as he spoke.

“Commander. He's the Republic's best pilot, and an advisor on this mission. He's seen more combat than most of us; if he says it's grim, he ain't lying. There,” the door slid open, revealing a battle.

The woman didn't stop to think about what she was doing, rushing into the thick of things. The two Sith fell quickly under the barrage of blaster fire and her blade. She looted the bodies quickly, pulling kolto patches from the belts of the troops as she walked by them.

_ When this is over I'm gonna have a talk with this Onasi. Republic's best pilot serving as advisor? Advisor to what? Is this a training mission gone wrong? And he sounds rather pleasant. _

Trask led them to another door, this one unlocked. It slid open to reveal more Sith troops, and some storage lockers. The woman glanced around the room quickly, deciding to take down the enemy on the left, leaving the two on the right for Ulgo. He could handle them alone mostly, they being stacked so their line of fire was diminished.

The woman finished her target, jumping over the table in the middle of the room to begin fighting the closer of the remaining Sith. He fell after a moment, being caught between the two Republic fighters.

“Wait, lemme see if there's anything useful in these lockers,” the woman said, stooping to open one. She pulled more kolto patches from the bin, stuffing them into whatever pockets she had empty. “These'll be handy later,” she said aloud, though mostly for her own sake. She grabbed a sword one of the Sith had been using, shifting her short sword to her left hand.  _ This is more like it! _

“Come on, the bridge is right through here!” Trask ran through another partially-open doorway, stopping abruptly at what lay on the other side. Two Jedi dueled, one with a red lightsaber and the other with a yellow saber.

“It's one of the Jedi from Bastila's group and a Sith! We'd better not get involved,” Trask continued.

The woman didn't see how helping the Jedi fight the dark one was a bad idea, but she couldn't get through the opening to do anything. She watched as Yellow Saber stabbed the dark jedi, then gaped as an explosion blasted through the corridor. When the smoke had cleared enough to see, Yellow Saber was also dead. A barrage from the Sith fleet had laid more damage onto the battered cruiser, setting off a chain reaction in the vents.

“Kriff!”  _ If we had helped her, would we be dead from that blast? Or would we have gotten out of this quicker and not been here when that happened?  _ The woman didn't know what to think.

She ran onto the bridge, finding it deserted save for a few Sith and Republic corpses. “Are any of them Onasi?” She asked, vaguely fearful of an affirmative answer.

Trask looked over the bodies, pushing one over with his foot to see the face. “No; he must already be heading for the escape pods. That means Bastila has escaped. Come on!”

The woman stopped to loot the bridge quickly, pulling whatever useful stuff she could on her way. She felt bad, like anyone would, but this was war and the dead had no use for their kolto or their grenades.

“Would you stop kriffing doing that? We're probably gonna die and you're busy filling your pockets!” Ulgo yelled as he rewired a door to open.

“I'm trying to save our asses when we get on the planet. Space knows what kind of place we'll be in. A few seconds to grab kolto isn't going to make a difference!”

“You don't know that...”

The woman rolled her eyes at Trask's back as he opened the emergency panel beside the door to get to the override panel. As the door to the starboard section hissed open begrudgingly, another door opened as well. Another dark jedi stood on the other side, his lightsaber igniting.

“I'll hold him off while you get to the pods. You're more important to this mission than me. You need to help Bastila. Follow your map. Now go!” Ulgo drew his blaster, beginning to fire at the jedi. He ran into the room the Sith occupied, the door closing of its own volition.

The woman wanted to stay to help, but she knew she couldn't.  _ Me, important? I don't even know why I'm on this blasted ship. But I need to get off this ship before it gets blasted to dust.  _ She ran through the door, stopping to pull her datapad out of her satchel.

_ How the frack do I get to the pods? Good thing my 'pad has a map. Left hall, then straight. _

Her comm trilled again, and she thumbed it on while it was still on her belt.

“This is Carth Onasi. I'm tracking you through the ship's life support system. You need to get to the pods quick; I can't wait much longer.” The voice seemed clearer now; she must be getting closer to him.

“I'm eager to meet you too, Commander. And get off this flying deathtrap. Maybe you can fill me in on the details I'm missing once we get in the pod,” the woman answered, slapping a kolto patch on a blaster burn on her arm that had escaped notice until then. The adrenaline was already wearing off from the previous skirmishes, but she knew she would have to face more of the boarding party to get to safety.

“I'd be more than happy to, soldier. Just move quick.” A faint smile could be heard in his voice, over the stress of the ongoing situation.

“I'll be there in five.” She set the comm to constant broadcast, sliding the 'pad back into her bag. She wouldn't have to answer the communicator anymore; instead it would automatically send and receive messages.

She walked around the corner to find herself confronted with two Sith troops at the intersection of the corridor. Thinking quickly, she dropped her sword to hurl a looted grenade at the two figures. Though not immediately killed, they were seriously wounded by the shrapnel. A few quick hits took care of them, and she pulled another kolto patch from one of their belts.

“I think this is mine now. Spoils of war and all,” she laughed, though it wasn't nearly as funny as it was in her head. She continued down the corridor, finding another room of crates. She searched them for grenades and kolto quickly, discarding the stuff she deemed useless.

“There's a full squad of Sith on the other side of the door. I think there's a disabled droid in the room with you, right?” Carth asked.

“Cargo manifest pulled up or something? That's affirmative.” She eyed the droid quickly, not liking the looks of it.

“If you're good with droids you could probably get it to attack the squad for you. Or you can slice the computer in there and overload something or other in the other room.”

“Let's go with computer; more likely to work quicker than the droid. How much time do I have left before you leave me?” The woman dashed to the computer panel beside the door, slicing into it quickly. She glanced through the various programs, choosing the power relay system.

“I'm not leaving you behind. Just hurry up.”

“Aye-aye, fly-boy,” she mumbled. She heard the relay overload in the room beside her after a moment, and she powered the door to open it.

“I heard that.”

The woman ran through the door, ignoring the stench of fried Sith.  _ One more door and I'm safe. Hopefully. _

She walked through the last door, finding a friendly face at last.  _ Must be Onasi; looks younger than I figured he'd be. But he's probably spent a lot of time in space; not much aging happens up here. No uniform; weird. Apparently being an advisor means he's not as bound to regulation; either that or he doesn't care. _

“There you are! There's one pod left; everyone else is either dead or escaped. We need to get to the planet below.”

“Nice to meet you too, Onasi,” she smirked, walking towards the open escape pod.

“There'll be time for talking once we're gone. Now move, soldier!”

The woman ducked into the pod, Carth close behind. He slammed the door shut, buckling himself in before hitting the button to launch. The pod shook violently as it left the launch tube, then evened out.

“Well, this mission doesn't seem to have gone to plan. Unless the mission was to-.” The pod shuddered, obviously riding a shock wave from an explosion – probably the cruiser being destroyed. The woman's head slammed back, hitting the wall hard. Everything went black, her thought unfinished.


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisona gets filled in on what happened while she was unconscious, Carth is a mother duckling, and we're almost to the action!

The woman opened her eyes slowly, blinking several times in the hazy light. _It smells like warmed-over shit in here. Ohmyfrack, I feel like a rancor tried to eat me and spit me out; maybe more than once. What the frack happened?_ She sat up slowly, wiggling her fingers and toes to restore circulation. Rubbing her face with a hand, she looked around her.

_Shitty apartment, check. But this is a whole new level of shitty apartments. It looks abandoned. Oh, there's a man in here. He looks familiar. Scruffy, too. It's been a couple days since whatever happened, then. Wonder if his voice is as good as he looks like it'd be. Did that even make sense? Probably not. That chair looks like it wouldn't be comfortable; I've no idea how he's managing to sleep in it. But he looks like he's seen lots of combat, so he's probably used to shitty sleeping places. Maybe I should wake him._

“Hey,” she squeaked, barely a whisper as her voice didn't work quite right. Her throat was almost as dry as Tatooine, and she could tell she hadn't spoken in a while. “Hey,” she tried again, slightly louder. “Wake up, Mr Fantastic Jacket.” Her voice didn't need to travel very far, as the scruffy man was seated just a little ways down at the foot of the bed. The chair creaked ominously as he moved.

“Wha? Oh, yeah. Glad to see you awake instead of thrashing around in your sleep. I was getting a little worried you wouldn't make it,” the man said. “How are you feeling?”

 _It starts with a K. Or a C. Krath? No, that's an animal._ “Like I had a few too many drinks and lost about five fights with some angry Gamorreans,” she chuckled, rubbing her head again. “What happened? Where are we? And who are you? You look like I know you. You sound familiar.”

“Carth Onasi; we met on the ship. You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for almost a week, so I'm not surprised you're having some memory issues. You took a pretty bad hit to the head on our way down. We're survivors from the Endar Spire. Do you remember anything at all from that?” Carth poured some water from a chipped pitcher, handing it to the woman to drink.

She gulped the water down, taking a moment to let her brain rotate into gear. “Yeah, vaguely. You were the voice on my comlink. I'd started thinking you were some hallucination before I ran into the escape pod bay and there you were. At least I don't have to call you Mr Fantastic Jacket With The Voice anymore.”

“Fantastic Jacket, huh? I'm flattered. As to your other questions, well, we're on Taris. The escape pod crashed here in the upper city, and I managed to drag you to safety before the Sith showed up. I found this abandoned apartment, and we've been holed up here ever since.”

“I guess I owe you my life, then. Thanks. I don't think I've told you my name yet, have I? Where are my manners? Lisona Dana; Lis for short. Scout extraordinaire, at your service. Though right now I don't feel so extraordinaire.”

“Nice to meet you, Lisona. I've read your crew profile; you speak an extraordinary amount of languages. A skill like that'll come in handy on this planet.”

Lis tried to stand up, though her knees hadn't gotten the memo that they could work yet. She caught herself before she fell, but Carth was there to back her up.

“Maybe you shouldn't try to move around just yet. I'll go buy us some food from a stand; there's one just outside the building. Be right back,” Carth said after helping her back onto the musty cot.

Lis watched as the door closed behind him, sighing. “I really need to pee though, Carth. Ugh. Where's the 'fresher?”

She sunk down onto the floor, crawling slowly towards the open door in the corner. _I sure hope there's running water in this dive._

_}{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{_

Carth returned 20 minutes later to find Lis sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, emergency blanket pulled tight around her shoulders.

“You didn't fall off, did you? I told you not to move around,” the pilot said, a hint of rebuke in his voice.

 _He's definitely used to being in command. Either that or a father. Maybe both. I don't know._ “I had to pee. I crawled – very carefully, I might add – to the hole in the floor formerly known as a 'fresher. I'm glad at least they didn't take the toilet when they looted everything in here.” Lis sniffed the air, food quickly becoming the topic at the forefront of her mind. “You brought food. What is it?”

“I didn't ask. Suffice it to say, it's edible, and leave it at that. Come on, you need to sit on the bed,” Carth answered. He put the bag he was carrying on a footlocker nearby, divvying the bowls up. “You shouldn't put too much on that stomach yet, so I brought you soup. Later you can have the unidentified meat meal. Here.”

“You take some med classes in your free time or something?” Lis took the bowl gratefully, smelling the fumes before starting to eat quickly. _Noodles and meat and vegetables, yum. Nothing better than this._

“Haha. Consider yourself lucky you wound up here with me instead of with your bunkmate, what's his name.”

“Trask Ulgo? Why's that?” She slurped a noodle up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before continuing to eat. _I wonder how many days we've been here._

“He was an ensign fresh out of training, from what I remember of his profile. Survival training doesn't really prepare you for actually surviving. Even though this is an ecumenopolis, we're still in hostile territory and might as well be on some forest planet scrounging for food.” He started eating then, picking at the sauced meat with a disposable fork.

“Well, other than the food stand down the street, of course. So what's the deal with this planet? I know nothing of Taris. Ohmyfrack this food tastes so good. Why does this taste so good?”

“Hunger is a fantastic seasoning. Taris is really wealthy and really divided. The rich live up top here, and the lower you go the worse it is. The Undercity is full of criminals banished there to die, and rakghouls. The Lower City is full of swoop gangs and petty crime that goes unpunished except for the vigilante justice of the gangs. Bounty hunters are common there, I think. Other than that, not much I can think of. You want more water?”

“Yeah, thanks. At least the water isn't turned off in here.”

“I had to bribe the janitor to turn the pipes on; said we're stuck here and he said he'd flip the switch soon as he got to the control room. By the time I got back up here, he had. The planet's under quarantine by the Sith, so when we're moving around we gotta be careful. The Sith won't be looking for a couple of grunts like us. We can move around unnoticed as long as we keep our heads down. Bastila won't have that luxury.”

Lis finished her soup quickly, setting the empty bowl beside her on the bed. “So this is probably gonna be a stupid question, but who's Bastila again?”

“That hit to your head must have been a doozy; Bastila's a jedi who was in charge of the Endar Spire. She's crucial to our war efforts, what with her Battle Meditation and all. We have to find her and find a way off this planet somehow. The Republic won't be sending any reinforcements, so we're the only ones for the job. But you need to regain your strength before we start looking for her.” Carth stood up, throwing the lunch bowls in the makeshift trash bin he'd made of a broken plasteel cylinder.

“I'm good. Let's go right now.” Lis started to stand up, sinking to the ground when her legs wouldn't hold her. “Give me a minute; I've got this.” She continued struggling to stand for a moment, finally managing to stand with minimal support from the bed.

“No, Miss Crawl to the 'fresher, you don't got this,” Carth returned. He watched as Lis sunk onto the bed, handing her the blanket that had slid to the floor. “We'll start searching in a couple of days, once you have more food in that stomach and can actually stand, let alone walk. The last thing we need is you collapsing on the walkway in front of some Sith and getting us arrested.”

“Fine. Do we have any idea where Bastila is?” Lis wrapped the emergency blanket around herself again, shivering in the cold air of the apartment.

“Yeah. Rumour has it that some escape pods crashed in the Undercity. Once you're strong enough, we can start looking there. But we should probably orient ourselves up here first; find some creds somewhere to buy some supplies or something.”

“Sounds like a plan. But first I'm gonna sleep; that food really knocked me out,” Lis yawned. “Oh, there's only one bed. I don't mind sharing; and it's freezing in here so body heat and all, right?”

“It's barely past midday.”

“Well I'm gonna sleep, so when you decide you want to sleep you can share the bed. Just don't hog the one blanket we have.” Lis yawned again, laying down and curling into a ball on the narrow cot. _He better not snore too loudly._

“Now where have I heard that before?” Carth mumbled, setting out to do more scouting.

_}{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{_

“I brought you some more soup. And I think I found somewhere we can get credits,” Carth said later, handing Lis another bowl. “Provided you're better at Pazaak than I am.”

“I know I can play, but I can't remember ever playing; or how good I am at it. Where are you getting the credits for this food?”

“I had some credit chits in my jacket and pockets; also your bag. I figured you wouldn't mind me using them to feed us.”

“I'm sure most of those creds I got off Sith bodies on the way to the escape pod, so they're as much mine as yours I guess,” Lis shrugged. She started eating quickly. “Any more exciting news from your scouting?”

“No. The Exchange is pretty active on this planet, not surprisingly. So we'd best keep as low a profile as we can; I'm sure the Sith have put out bounties for any Republic troops that crashed here.”

“You think Bastila's survived so far?”

“For all our sakes, I hope so. You know, I've been wondering something. Why were you on the Endar Spire?”

“I was assigned there, I reported for duty, then we got attacked; same as any other person on that ship. Why? What were you advising about?” Lis didn't like where this conversation was heading.

“It just seems odd that someone that Bastila specifically requested managed to survive, that's all.”

Lis put down her bowl slowly, staring at Carth. “Are you accusing me of something, Commander? And I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would she request me?”

“I'm not accusing you of anything. And your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what Bastila was thinking. When the Jedi came on board they pretty much took the ship over. And drop the rank.”

“I have no idea why she'd ask for me; I'm just a scout who barely remembers anything. You still haven't answered my question though. What were you advising on?”

“I wasn't,” he scoffed. “I spent the week on the Endar Spire feeling useless because we flew from system to system and did nothing. Then we got ordered to report here by the higher-ups in the fleet, and then the Sith blew us out of the sky.”

“Sounds like whatever the mission was, it was bound to failure from the start.”

“What did you mean when you said you barely remember anything?”

“I lost most of my memories on a mission somehow. I can't remember what the mission was or where it was, but I got a little too close to dead and my memories went kapoot. I have vague recollections of shit. I know I grew up on Derallia, I enlisted after the Mandalorians showed up, and I served with honour until my accident. It takes me a long time to dredge up anything specific about stuff, and most of the time I can't even do that. Honestly I don't know if I'm remembering that stuff or someone told me that after the accident.” Lis shrugged. “I guess it doesn't matter either way, long as it's true.”

“And they let you back into the Fleet like this?”

“Medical says I'm fit for duty. Whether or not I'm any good remains to be seen,” Lis shrugged again.

“Great; I'm stuck on a hostile planet with an amnesiac scout trying to save the most important jedi in the Republic. This is going to turn out great.”

“At least I remember how to fight. And I'm still a good scout. Once we get out there we'll just have to test my memory; see if I still remember all those languages my 'file says I know.”

“Come on, finish your soup; I want to go to bed.” Carth stood up, throwing away his empty food carton.

“Hey, hand me my bag, would ya? I want to see what I managed to pick up before our hasty exit,” Lis said, pointing at the satchel propped up against the far wall.

“Your legs aren't broken; get it yourself.” Carth pulled his jacket off, tossing it over the rickety chair beside the bed. He sat down on the bed as Lis stood up, watching as she slowly made her way to the bag. He pulled off his boots as she crouched down to rummage through the bag.

“Hey, where's my datapad? You didn't sell it, did you?” She asked after a minute, looking over at him.

“I was using it to track where I'd been scouting; you can have it back. It's in the footlocker over here. That's a pretty nifty 'pad you've got. Automatic mapping function, computer hook-up, holorecorder, voice-input; it must have cost a pretty penny to get it.”

“I can't remember buying it. It was in my room at the hospital on Coruscant, after the accident.” Lis stood up, retrieving the device and sitting on the bed again. “It had stuff on it, like stuff that seemed to be from before. Some journal entries about some of the planets I've been to, some holos of people I don't really remember well. I think it was a gift, from someone I knew before. Either that or someone gave it to me afterwards. But I guess if it was given to me afterwards it wouldn't have stuff from before on it, would it? It bother you if I have this on for a while, to read over some stuff?”

“Nah, go ahead. Don't forget to get the light. Night.” Carth turned towards the wall, pulling the blanket up.

Lis got up to turn the wall light off, 'pad in hand to light her way back to the cot. She pulled up the journal function, starting a new entry.

**The mission of the Endar Spire, whatever it was, is over. I have no idea what I was supposed to be doing on that ship, so I'm almost glad I'm off it. But now we have to find a blasted jedi on a hostile world controlled by the Sith and swoop gangs. We don't even know if she's alive, we're living in an abandoned apartment, and we have almost no credits. I guess tomorrow we'll see how good I am at Pazaak.**


	3. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exploring time!

“Hey, Carth, wake up,” Lis whispered hoarsely. She shook his shoulder roughly. “Wakey wakey.”

“Wha? The fuck are you waking me up for? Is it even dawn?” Carth groused, pulling the blanket tighter.

“The sun rose like half an hour ago I think. We don't have any food in here.” Lis poked at Carth's back, trying to rouse him again.

“I couldn't find an abandoned apartment with a fully stocked pantry, Lis. Lemme sleep.”

“That food stand wouldn't happen to have breakfast, would it?” Lis asked. “I'm in the mood for an egg and cheese burrito with a side of gizka sauce like Auntie Kemla's on Coruscant.”

“I don't think they have anything like that there. They might have griddlebread though. Don't go without me! Don't need you getting lost on me too; have to find you  **and** Bastila.” Carth sat up slowly, trying to rearrange his hair with a hand.

“Come on, fly-boy, I'm starving. I'd like to get breakfast before they switch to their dinner menu.” Lis was already standing next to the door, pulling her boots on quickly.

“The more you try to rush me the slower I'll move. You sure you're up for getting out of the apartment already? It's only been a day since you regained consciousness, you know.”

“I feel great; I slept amazing. I need food. Should I take my bag or leave it here? No one will come in and steal it, will they?”

“I'm not totally useless when it comes to security; I got the doors to lock and unlock for me. You can leave it; take the 'pad though. It'll be handy to have the map, you know.” Carth stood up, buckling his utility belt with holsters.

Lis nodded, walking back to the bed to grab the datapad from the chair beside it. “You didn't do much scouting, from the looks of this map. The food stand, the cantina, and the apartment. Oh, and some other building marked Zelka Forn. Dare I ask?” Lis raised an eyebrow at Carth, wiggling it lasciviously.

“Zelka is a doctor; after breakfast you're going to go see him.”

“Sir yes sir,” Lis mumbled. She opened the apartment door, stepping out into the hallway.

“You need to stop that before someone overhears,” Carth whispered. “The last thing we need is some local turning us in to get creds.

“You got it, Boss-man.” Lis approached the Twi'lek vendor down the hall, beginning to look over the wares displayed slowly.

“It's good to see you are walking,” the vendor said in Ryl. “Your captain had told me of your injury when you first arrived here; I was anxious that you would not survive. It would cause problems to have a human die in this building, seeing as all the tenants are illegal aliens.”

“Yes, I could see how that would be a problem,” Lis said dryly. “But thankfully I just needed sleep and food to recuperate.”

“Something that was in high supply since we're stuck here for the quarantine. They won't even let freighters leave,” Carth added.

_ If he says that any more pointedly I could stab myself. No sense of subtlety. _

“We'll be back later to look over your wares more thoroughly; right now we don't have much since we haven't been paid yet. Slight problem caused by the quarantine, you know,” Lis continued. She nodded at the man before heading farther down the hall.

“Maybe I should lead the way, since I was the one scouting the past few days,” Carth reasoned.

“By all means; I don't mind bringing up the rear.” Lis stopped, waving a hand in front of her for Carth to begin walking.

Carth led them down to the skyway, the food cart just beginning to sell food when they arrived. He ordered them two plates of griddlebread, gooey berry sauce on the side for dipping. Lis found a bench tucked away on the terrace, the apartment building entrance just out of sight.

Lis surveyed the citizens of Taris as she ate, watching the protocol droids and Sith patrols intermingled with the locals. No aliens walked the streets, only humans.

_ This planet is messed up. The Sith sure aren't going to do them any favors with this occupation, either. Hopefully I can buy a Pazaak deck off someone for cheap, otherwise I'll be trying to find work as a flowergram girl. Hehehe; I bet Carth would get a laugh out of me having to do that for creds. Force knows he can't get a job here; the Sith would find out about us quicker than a Gamorrean finds a mudpuddle. _

“So, I think the first thing we should do is head to the cantina. We can hear some more of the gossip, get more info, and hopefully I can win us some more creds. Then we can work with whatever rumours we hear in there to get us down to the Under City. It probably won't be easy to get down there; the Sith probably have security on whatever the main passageway is,” Lis said, finishing her food off.

“No, first we go see Zelka so we can make sure you're fit for duty.  **Then** we go to the cantina,” Carth corrected. “Come on, it's just down the way a bit.” He stood up, starting to walk west.

Lis followed grudgingly, though she didn't appear so. She wove her way through the crowd in front of Carth, walking as though she belonged on such a skyway. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. The Sith troops patrolling the area didn't spare a glance at her or at Carth, his orange hangar jacket appearing commonplace in the now-quarantined city.

Lis approached the closed door that was flanked by a sign reading “Medical Facility”, pausing before the doors automatically opened for her.

“Maybe you should go in first, boss-man,” Lis said, looking back at Carth.

“If you're afraid to talk to a doctor, I have no idea how you became the best scout in the sector,” Carth mumbled, walking forward.

“Ah, Arryn, glad to see you again! And this must be your crewmate who was injured. Damn shame the Sith were a little trigger happy when you were trying to land,” an older man said as Carth walked through the door. The doctor was dark complexioned and partly bald, his hair greying around the temples.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor,” Lis said, shaking his hand.

“The pleasure's mine. I suppose you'll be wanting a full exam? Your captain said it's been a while since either of you had any real medical attention. Transit pilots always flying, don't get many diseases in hyperspace I suppose,” Zelka continued.

“Yes, a full exam would probably be in my best interest. Though probably out of my price range, considering I have almost no credits.”

“It would be free of charge, considering the extenuating circumstances. I've treated a few other patients rather suddenly the past few days,” the doctor whispered, glancing over at Carth as he spoke.

_ He knows we're Republic fugitives? Carth must have told him. Maybe he was bringing supplies from here while I was knocked out. Sounds like he got some other Republics in here somewhere. I wonder if any of them know anything about Bastila. _

“I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Doctor. It's good to know the traveler has a friend in you,” Lis replied. She hopped onto the exam table, rolling her sleeve up quickly.

“Are any of your other patients around?” Carth asked, leaning against the wall.

“Not at the moment; they're all at their respective homes.”

Carth nodded, having expected an answer in the negative. They'd have to rely on locals' information on Bastila from that moment on.

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“You're healthy enough for a transit pilot, though you're still a little weak. I'd say get some more rest, but I understand the allure that a planet like Taris would have for a person of your age. Just don't do anything too strenuous during your time here,” Zelka said later, putting his scanner away.

“Thanks, Doc. Is there anything you can tell me about the Under City?”

“Don't go there if you can help it. It's infested with rakghouls. The scientists at the Republic base had been working on a serum for it, but once the Sith came the research was lost I think. If I could get my hands on it, I could reproduce it in mass quantities.”

“If I ever find a sample of it, I'll be sure to bring it to you. But no guarantees of course; hopefully I never run into one of those beasts,” Lis said.

“Don't be saying stuff like that too loudly; don't want the Sith getting ideas I'm promoting attacking them or something.”

“Hopefully you won't be seeing us too much while we're stuck on this planet,” Carth said, nodding at the other man.

“If you need any medical attention, I'm the one for it.”

Carth led Lis out of the medical facility, taking the 'pad from her hands.

“Okay, lemme show you where we are right now. The cantina is right across from the apartment complex, and the supply store is in between those two places. We don't have enough credits to buy supplies yet, I think. I managed to sell some useless stuff to the owner, Kebla Yurt, but she doesn't have much to offer right now. It was mostly combat stuff, armour and weapons and the like. Had some basic supplies that I bought, but judging from the somewhat lack of smell you already found those this morning.”

“The shower in the apartment is terrible, by the way. But running water seems a luxury currently. So on to the cantina for some Pazaak?” Lis questioned, taking the 'pad back.

“Yeah. Just try not to lose all our creds at once; I'd like to buy a Tarisian Ale before we're broke,” Carth laughed.

Lis quickly found the cantina hidden away from the main thoroughfare, nodding at the Sith guard who stood outside. Given a fiasco inside the bar, he'd probably be the first one to respond. Lis bypassed the first room, which appeared to be for Pazaak, to head to the main room. Three rooms spread out before her, all of which seemed heavily occupied.

She bought a drink from the bartender, heading into the room on the right that seemed to be the source for the music that filled the bar. Two Twi'lek dancers occupied the stage, as well as a couple Bith musicians.

“Try not to get distracted,” Lis joked, looking over her shoulder at Carth.

“I don't know what I'd get distracted from,” he returned, “I'm watching out for you.”

Lis shook her head, approaching a man standing in the corner. “They're pretty good, aren't they?”

“Yeah. Do I know you? You look familiar,” the man asked.

“No; I just have a generic face, I guess.”

“Yeah, that must be it. I'm Yun, by the way.”

“Jen.”

“It's nice just being able to come here after a shift and relax. A lot of the other troopers come here too.”

“I bet. I'm new around here; think you could give me some advice on where to go? I'm a transit pilot, so I'm just cooling my engines until the quarantine ends.”

“You must probably hate me even more than the locals, then,” he scoffed.

“No; us off-worlders need to stick together on a place like Taris,” Lis replied, sliding in marginally closer.

“Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't really have any advice on where to go on this world; I don't get out much besides for my shifts. But I do know one place that might be pretty swinging,” he grinned.

“Yeah? Where's that at?”

_ Here comes an invitation to come to his apartment, right? I want info, but not that badly. _

“Me and some of the other junior officers are having a party tomorrow night at my place. Wanna come?”

“Sure; not much else to do on this backwater planet. Here, put the coordinates in my map so I don't get lost.” Lis pulled up a blank map quickly, it already having the cantina listed in the points of interest.

“Hope to see you there, Jen,” Yun answered, handing the pad back. “I'd better get back home; I have a shift later.”

Lis watched him walk away, catching Carth's eye as she headed back to the main room.

“You get a date with the enemy?” He asked, not liking what he thought.

“No, just an invitation to a party tomorrow at his place. I'm sure he won't mind if I bring my captain with; the more the merrier, right?”

“Count me out. I think I heard some guy in the first room trying to sell his deck; maybe you should go check that out before someone else buys it.”

“That might be a good idea. See anything interesting while you were surveillance-ing?”

“Other than too many drunks for this early in the morning, no.”

Lis bought the sidedeck from the old man in the gaming room, getting a refresher course in the game while she was at it. Then, she got to work.

She seemed to know what she was doing, always just this edge of busting every set. She almost knew what the next card dealt was going to be, though that was impossible considering the deck was shuffled by a droid each time. She won game after game, the credit chits accumulating in her bag with each hand won. She lost just enough to not be suspicious, though often those losses were rather rookie mistakes. After three hours, she'd driven all of the other players to quit, though no fights had begun.

“We need to get to the Lower City to get more creds,” Lis said, approaching Carth at the bar.

“How much did you get today?” Carth leveled her with a side-eye, watching the crowd behind her as well.

“We have 2000 now; I started with 400.”

“How are we getting down there?”

“I haven't figured that out yet. Let's go investigate the rest of the cantina, yeah? See if there's any opportunities left to get creds.” Lis grabbed Carth's wrist, pulling him along to the next room in the ring of the cantina.

“This looks promising,” Lis mumbled, walking up to one of the viewscreens mounted on the wall.

A fight was displayed on the viewer, two combatants facing off with pistols. The one combatant dropped his gun as he pulled it out of its holster, and the other quickly knocked him out.

“No, no, and no. You're in no shape to be going into a dueling ring,” Carth said as Lis shot him a hopeful look. “And I'm not going in there either. I'm too recognizable to the Sith; one person looks me up in their database and we'll never get Bastila back to the Republic.”

“But I could just do a couple fights, real easy ones, get some easy creds, and then back out. It wouldn't be that difficult. And Zelka said he'd patch me up whenever I need it,” Lis replied.

“No. That's an order, Lisona. We don't need creds badly enough for you to be risking your life more than you already will be.”

“Fine. But if I end up cleaning all the pazaak players out and we still need creds, I'm coming back and fighting.”

“Alright. Come on, I think we've done all we can in here for the moment. Maybe later you'll find some more people to gamble out of their money.”

“Shall we go explore more of the city, boss-man? I want to find the elevator.”


	4. Chapter Three

The southern portion of the Upper City was just as bustling as the previous section, though Sith seemed much more prevalent. The sun was high in the sky, and the faint outline of ships could be seen orbiting the planet.

“I never scouted this far from the apartment, so your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what's here,” Carth said. He looked over Lis' shoulder as she marked the passageway they'd taken to arrive at the new city section.

She compiled the map Yun had given her with the one Carth had begun, smiling when she saw them match up.

“I guess that Sith's apartment is in this section, in that building across the way. We'll have to stop in to say hello tomorrow now that we know where it's at,” Lis said, pointing to the building of which she spoke.

“The base must not be far from here, then. We should stay on our toes, just in case.”

“Yeah. Try not to look suspicious.” Lis put the 'pad back into her bag, beginning to walk down the skyway.

At the other end of the walkway there was a droid shop, though only a few droids were available.

“Welcome to Janice Nal's Droids. How can I help you folks today?” The owner said, coming out from behind the counter as Lis and Carth entered.

“We're looking for a utility droid; ours suffered some irreparable damage just before we came to Taris,” Lis answered.

“Well, I have two units right now. The C5 unit is good and cheap; I fixed him up myself. The T3 unit is top of the line with all security features and computer interface available. Unfortunately the T3 is on hold for a very important customer,” Janice replied.

“How much for the T3?” Lis asked.

“I'm sorry, but I can't sell it. Davik is the one who's going to buy it.”

“Who's Davik? We're off-worlders, stuck by the quarantine,” Carth butted in.

“Davik is the local crime boss; he works for the Exchange. He asks for a protection fee each month, but it's reasonable. The Sith took all my assault droids and such nots, but they didn't think utility droids would be of interest to the Exchange. Would you like to buy the C5?”

“Not today; we don't have enough credits at the moment,” Carth said, grabbing Lis' elbow. Once they were outside and out of earshot of anyone, he said, “what are you thinking? We don't need a droid! The Sith probably put tracking beacons in all those droids.”

“I could take one out no sweat. But I really want that T3 unit; he might be able to help us later.”

“Right now we need to focus on getting to the Lower City so we can get to the Under City, remember? Elevator? Bastila?”

“I remember; my memory isn't that bad yet. It looks like there's a bunch of Sith heading across the way; maybe we should go investigate that area.”

“Maybe we should wait until we have a plan for getting on the elevator,” Carth replied.

“You wait here; I'm going to go scout it out. If you hear blasters, run.” Before Carth could answer, Lis was already walking towards the corridor full of Sith.

Lis strode through the outgoing Sith patrol, stopping in front of the guard posted outside the elevator. “I need to get to the Lower City,” she said.

_ Please let this not backfire, please let this not backfire. _

“Nice try. You need papers to go down,” the trooper replied. “Now move along, citizen.”

“But I could be advantageous to you all; I'm good with a blade. I could help take care of the gangs down there,” Lis added.

“If you're interested in joining the Sith, go to the base. Otherwise, move along,” the trooper repeated.

Lis backed away quickly, returning to where Carth was waiting by a bench.

“So no blasterfire; didn't go too badly then?” Carth asked quietly.

“We need papers to get down there. Or we can go in the base to join the Sith and then we could get uniforms and sneak down there without papers.”

“I don't think it would go over well if I went in there. They might have found a crew manifest on the Spire, so it might not be safe for you either.”

“Well we need to get down there, and I'm all out of other ideas. Unless you can find a way to sneak down that doesn't involve either Sith papers or Sith armour, we have no other choice but for me to go in the base and try to steal armour there,” Lis whispered emphatically.

“Let's go get lunch and we can try to think up a plan that doesn't involve you getting yourself killed,” Carth said after a moment.

“Fine. But I still think finding armour is our best idea.”

“So do I, but we need a plan to  **get** said armour. We'll figure it out. Now come on; you need more food in you.”

“I have no idea whether you're a mother duck or a pilot,” Lis laughed.

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“Hey, I'm going back to the cantina. I'll be back in a couple hours,” Lis said, the door sliding closed behind her. She jogged to the elevator down to the skyway, hearing a door open as the elevator doors began closing.

_ This might backfire just a little. But I should be able to win atleast one fight. I don't think we have enough money for bribes once we get to the Lower City. Force knows how much we'll need down there. _

Lis strode into the cantina, one hand resting on the hilt of a blade. Though she'd been in there only half a day earlier, the patrons were all of a different variety. Being closer to the regular dinnertime of the planet, the day-workers occupied the bar.

Lis walked into the betting room for the dueling arena, striding to the Hutt who reclined at the far end. “I want to get in the ring,” she said.

“Ha! And what makes you think I'll let you in the ring?” The Hutt replied.

“It doesn't look like you have many duelists right now; I'm fresh meat for the arena. I'll bring in more money. Give me 20% of the pool and I'll rake in the credits.”

“Duelists get 10%.”

“15%; otherwise I'll walk out the door and the next time you see me I'll be fighting in someone else's ring.” Lis stared the Hutt down, waiting for him to call her bluff.

“Deal. Follow Xiol to the duelist's chamber; he'll get you prepared for the ring. You know the rules, right?”

“Yeah; don't kill anyone.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

Lis looked around the spectator arena as she waited for her name to be called. She didn't remember ever being infront of a crowd before, but that didn't mean much with her memory problems.

_ If I get seriously hurt, Carth is going to kill me. If he catches me here he might kill me anyways. So I guess that means I have to win, huh? Well, here goes nothing, I guess. _

She ran into the arena when the announcer began her intro, waving at the crowd as she sized up her opponent.

_ It's the old guy from the fight I saw earlier. This is going to be an easy 100 credits. _

As the elder duelist drew his blaster she started running towards him, her two blades drawn already. She quickly had him on his back, one blade held above his throat.

“You're going to have to do better than that to impress us,” the announcer said over the speakers.

Lis shook her head, backing up and helping Duncan to his feet. She walked back to the staging area, finding the stairs that led back to the main level. When she opened the door, Carth was waiting on the other side.

He grabbed her elbow, pulling her over into an unoccupied corner. “What the kriff were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed! Or injured even worse! If you'd gotten another concussion you'd be down for another month; it's bad enough you have to help find Bastila with the one you have now. Why don't you think next time instead of rushing off?”

“I got us another 150 credits for almost no work; even easier than playing Pazaak. What did you expect me to do? I got bored of gambling and that stupid game. Had to pass the time somehow while we wait for our plan to materialize.”

“We have a plan; our plan is going to work. We just can't execute the plan until tomorrow night. You have no patience, do you?” Carth sighed, finally letting go of Lis' elbow.

“No, not really. It's a wonder I managed to become a scout; it takes a lot of sitting and talking to learn all the rumours. Come on, let me go get the credits I won.”

“How you managed to  **survive** this long is beyond me,” Carth mumbled as Lis walked over to the Hutt.

“Good job. Are you up for another fight already? Your partner doesn't seem too happy with you, by the way.”

“He doesn't like me fighting; he's slightly overprotective. Can I get my money now, Ajuur? Or do I have to wait for you to finish counting tomorrow?” Lis smirked.

“Here. Gerlon Two-Fingers is the next duelist you can face; provided you're ready for it.”

“I didn't even break a sweat against Duncan; hopefully Gerlon is a bit more of a challenge.”

“Go on down, then. Gerlon awaits,” Ajuur said, handing the credit chits over.

“Glad you decided to – wait, where are you going? Why are you going- Blast it!” Carth followed Lis down to the staging area, watching as she headed into the arena again.

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“You really amaze me sometimes,” Carth said, frowning as Lis limped to the staging area.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Will you hand me the medpac? My arm is slightly on fire,” Lis groaned. “I got us more money, though.”

“Yeah, and you got your ass whooped in the process. I think 3000 credits is enough for the moment. You're not invincible. You know that, right?” Carth undid the latch on the medpac, pulling out the kolto patches and the gauze. “Roll your sleeve up.”

“Yeah, obviously. If I was I wouldn't have almost lost to Gerlon. I can pay for dinner for a while though. Kriff, do they have to make those hurt so much?” She hissed as Carth applied more kolto to the large bruise that was already forming on her arm.

“I think you've more than earned the right to buy a few meals. How's your head feel?” He swabbed kolto on her forehead, a glancing blow from the armoured-forearm of Gerlon having given her a cut there.

“Feels fine. I might have cracked a rib though from that last hit before I knocked him out,” Lis confessed, not looking at Carth.

“We'll patch that up when we get back to the apartment. Come on; you can buy me dinner and then I'll finish doctoring.” Carth helped her stand up, following her up the stairs.

“Which sounds better: I was in a bar fight or I was dueling?” She asked.

“Dueling; get the glory, get the creds, and the Sith aren't mad at you.”


	5. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisona shows off skills she doesn't remember learning and there's some fighting because of course there is this has been too boring so far.

“Hey. Maybe tomorrow we should go to the store and buy some stuff; you know, food, some clothes so we don't look like vagabonds. I mean, your clothes are mostly fine, but I'm just slightly covered in random scorch marks and tears. It might be a bit of an issue at some point.” Lis shrugged.

“Well, can't say I'd be opposed to the idea of buying some food so we aren't always frequenting that foodstand. But I don't think we have a conservator.”

“Canned soup is always cheap and requires only a shelf to store. I thought I saw a gas pipe in the apartment.”

“If you turn on the gas, the entire room would fill with it and we'd blow up half the building,” Carth explained, shaking his head. He pressed the outer door button for the apartment complex, waving Lis in first.

“I can fix that, you know. Put on a control valve and a nozzle and it'll be perfectly safe. As long as you have a zippo, we have a way to heat soup.” Lis nodded at an alien as she and Carth stepped onto the elevator, waiting until he disembarked two floors later to continue speaking. “One of the perks of being a scout is you learn how to improvise.”

“And where are you going to get those items at?” Carth held the elevator door as Lis stepped off, following her to their apartment.

“From Kebla Yurt's Emporium, of course. Probably be able to get all the stuff we need there. Do you have to walk so slow, Carth? I'd like to get my side wrapped before breakfast.” She stopped infront of the apartment door, waiting for Carth to unlock it once he reached it.

“For being hurt, you sure do manage to walk quick,” he mumbled.

“Maybe you're just getting old,” she winked. As soon as the door was unlocked she walked through, pulling her vest off quickly. The shirt took another moment to pull up.

“If I'm old, what does that make you? We've got to be around the same age, if we enlisted around the same time. Where does your rib hurt?” Carth opened the medpac, pulling out more kolto.

“On the right, a bit closer to the spine than the breastbone. You see the giant bruise that I'm sure is forming?”

“Yeah. Here, hold this kolto on there while I find some bandages.”

Lis hissed as the kolto patch pressed onto the bruise, closing her eyes for a second.

“I thought you read my profile, fly-boy. I enlisted when the Mandalorians came, in '64; I was 28.”

“So you're two years younger than me. You spend most of the time in space, or pounding ground? Here, hold this end.” Carth handed her one end of a gauze wrap.

“Damned if I remember. You're talking to someone who can't remember more than three months ago, remember? Honestly, I could be 50 for all I know; I'm just going by what someone told me. I don't feel 35 though.”

“You will in the morning, based on the beatings you've gotten lately. Try not to fight tomorrow, okay? We're taking it easy tomorrow; some shopping, a party with some Sith, and some more Pazaak if you didn't chase everyone away.”

“I might be able to get one more day of Pazaak in before they stop wanting to play with me. So maybe another thousand creds will materialize by dinner tomorrow. Did you wrap the gauze tight enough? I can barely breathe. Ow.” Lis pulled her shirt back down, the vest cast aside in favor of walking to the refresher. The sound of running water filled the small apartment for a minute, followed by Lis groaning at the hazy reflection.

“That's the cracked rib's fault, not mine. Do you want mystery meat meal one, two, or four?” Carth asked when Lis reappeared.

“What happened to mystery meat meal three?” Lis draped the vest over her shoulders.

“Meat number three is no longer available apparently. The quarantine has shut off all trade routes for the time being. I don't imagine there could be nerf on Taris.”

“Oh, is that what that was? I thought for sure it was more gizka. Come on, let's go get food. I think mystery meat four sounds good right about now.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

Lis picked at the gauze on her arm absently as she waited for the turbolift to reach its destination. Carth had sent her to buy the morning meal with her Pazaak winnings, and she wasn't happy about the lack of food in the shoddy apartment.

_ We should've gone shopping last night to get at least some food. I mean, who knows how long we'll be stuck on this planet. But we're going after breakfast, so I guess there's no point in complaining about it. But if there was something besides griddlebread to eat it might be nice. Is there even such a thing as breakfast soup? Maybe egg soup. But we'd have to have a pot of some sort to make that. Maybe Kebla's has one. _

Lis stepped out of the lift, blinking against the early morning sun. It was just peaking out from between two starscrapers, mist beginning to burn off in the heat.

“Good morning, Isaak. What's the morning special?” She asked, leaning on the small counter.

“Griddlebread, with a side of apple syrup. We also just got caf back in stock; the quarantine has stopped imports, but our merchant had some warehoused. You want some?”

“Would I ever. The last time I had caf it was instant; the last planet we'd stopped on didn't have any of the real stuff for us to buy. We weren't happy about that at all.” She accepted the flimsicup gratefully, smiling at the old man as he started preparing the griddlebread.

A few minutes later Isaak handed her the two plates of food and a small folding box, two cafs nestled in the corners amongst creams and sweetpacks. Lis thanked him before heading into the apartment building.

As the turbolift went up, a sinking feeling unrelated to the lift arose in Lis' stomach. She couldn't place the feeling, but something felt... off, almost wrong.

_ Am I forgetting something? I know it's early in the morning, but I only had one task to do, so I couldn't have forgotten my one task since I actually did it. My memory's bad, but it's not that bad. What's the date today? Maybe it's someone's birthday? What am I forgetting? _

She almost dropped the packages in her hands as the turbolift doors slid open, revealing a Sith sergeant and two droids in the corridor. Two Duros stood in the hall as well, facing the patrol. Lis stepped off the turbolift, shrinking into an alcove, unseen by the enemy.

“We're looking for Republic fugitives. Seen any around?” The Sith in charge asked of his non-human audience.

“No, no one unusual has been here since the quarantine. There was a patrol a couple of days ago,” one Duro said.

At that moment, Carth stepped out of the apartment, unaware as to the patrol's presence. He froze at the sight of the Sith, who stared back at him for a second. Finally, the Sith shouted, “a human in this dive?! He's a Republic fugitive! Get him!”

Carth drew his blaster, beginning to shoot at the patrol droids. Lis put the food down on a shelf, her hand going to the long blade at her side. She rushed out of the alcove, stabbing the sergeant through the torso. Carth had already knocked out one of the droids, and an unhurried final blasterbolt finished the second one off. The Duros had stood frozen in shock during the encounter.

“We will take care of the bodies,” the Duro who hadn't spoken before said. “Thank you for fighting with us.”

“Sure, no problem, man,” Lis replied, sarcasm dripping as she returned her sword to its sheath. She shared a glance with Carth across the corridor, her brows raising in shared joke.

She went back to the alcove, fetching the still-warm food from the table. One flimsicup of caf was knocked over, the contents spilling onto the floor to mix with the dust and grime.

_ Well, I suppose it's a good thing I already had my caf. Maybe later I'll buy me another one. _

Lis walked into the apartment, almost running into Carth as he stood in the doorway. He took the cup of caf quickly, inhaling the scent before beginning to drink.

“You know this is the worst caf I’ve ever had?” Carth asked after a minute. “But it sure tastes good right about now.”

“It might be a good idea for us to find another hideout soon, if there’s going to be more patrols coming around. What happened to the first one that came here?” Lis set the foodboxes down, digging in her vest pockets for the forks she’d stashed.

“They left without finding us. We probably wouldn’t be able to find another place to stay up here in the Upper City; it’s full of snobs and we don’t have the money. Our best bet is to continue to lay low, and deal with any patrols when they come. Unless you have a few extra thousand creds lying around we could use for rent.”

“Unfortunately pazaak doesn’t pay as well as that. Now if you were an admiral, you’d probably have the money for it; but you wouldn’t be able to access it on this planet without alerting the Sith that you’re here,” Lis frowned. “I must have dropped the forks in the corridor during the encounter; frack. I’ll go see if they’re still out there.”

She turned around, triggering the door sensor. She stopped when she heard Carth laughing, however. 

“What’s so funny?” 

“They’re in your hair; in the braid. They look like antenna,” he managed to get out between bursts of laughter. “I wish you could see them.”

Lis reached back, patting the back of her head. She yanked the forks out of her braid, wiping them on her pants leg before handing one to Carth.

“I don’t remember putting them there; oh well. Eat, we’ve a long day of shopping and party crashing to do.”

“It must have been since you haven’t had caf yet. And it’s not party-crashing since you were invited. Me on the other hand -- that might be party crashing.” Carth started spreading the syrup on his griddlebread, rolling it up to form a tube before eating.

“I already drank my caf; I was gonna have a second one, but it spilled somehow in the hall.”

“And here I thought it was the fight that had you looking so bright and peppy.”

Silence reigned for the time being as both Republics ate quickly, slurping the last of the syrup up for the added energy.

“Yun is probably gonna be so pissed when I show up with you trailing along. Maybe if we show up late he and everyone else will have already started drinking.”

“I sure hope our plan works; otherwise we’re gonna be in a giant mess.” Carth threw his empty flimsicup into the trash bin, leaning back in the chair so he was balanced on the back two legs. 

“ **You’re** the one who thought stealing Yun’s armour was a good idea; I’m just following your command, boss-man. Now come on; let’s go shopping.” Lis stood up, running a hand through her hair.

“Many a man heard that phrase before his wallet went dry,” Carth mumbled.

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“Hi Kebla. You wouldn’t happen to know of anywhere we could buy groceries, would you? Or canned soup, even?” Lis walked into the Equipment Emporium, beginning to survey the offerings.

“You’d have to take an air-taxi to the next skyway over, but there’s one just on the other side of the Sith base. A man from the Middle City got a permit to put one there, and he’s raked in the creds from it; the richy-rich of up here can pay exorbitant amounts for food and things. If you mention my name, though, he’ll give you the employee discount. And by employee discount, I mean the actual price of the stuff. It’s called Fronk’s; you can’t miss it. See anything you like in here?”

“Yeah, I’ll take these two things. Oh, and this too.” Lis set down the nozzle and valve she’d mentioned to Carth the night before, as well as a small handsaw.

“20 creds. Whatever you’re doing with these, be careful. Don’t do anything too dangerous,” Kebla replied. 

“Oh, I’m just fixing my stove; no worries. I’ve done this before countless times.” Lis smiled, handing over the credit chit. “Thanks for the directions.”

“You’ve done it countless times, huh?” Carth whispered once they were back on the skyway.

“I can’t remember doing it, but I know how to do it; I can’t count it, so it’s countless.” Lis shrugged, not looking back at Carth. “Let’s go to Fronk’s before I engineer the stove; I’d rather have something to actually test it on other than my hair.”


	6. Chapter Five

“So, I was thinking,” Lis began after stepping out of the airtaxi in front of Fronk's.

“Don't hurt yourself too much before we find Bastila,” Carth answered.

“We should buy stuff before we buy the food, even though we're getting canned soup mostly. It's easier to pile clothes more than food. We really need to change our clothes before we're booted down to the Lower City, by the way.” Lis sniffed at her shirt, grimacing at the stench. She grabbed a hovercart as she walked into the store, turning down the first aisle.

“Don't go overboard on buying stuff; we're taking a taxi back, remember? This ain't exactly a weekend shopping spree, Lis.” Carth picked up a shirt, tossing it into the hovercart after checking the size.

“Oh trust me, Boss-man, I don't need many clothes to survive. That's one thing I learned in our line of work. But unfortunately womens' clothing is still arbitrarily sized by how many nexu turds fit in them, so I'll probably be in the clothing section for a while,” Lis sighed. “You can go to the grocery section once you're done finding clothes. I’ll eat anything, so it’s not like you need me there to help. Why don’t you take the cart?”

“I feel like I need to keep an eye on you so you don’t get kicked out of here; you stink more than I do, remember? And besides, I’m used to shopping with a woman, so nothing can surprise me.”

“Really? I didn’t know you were married; of course, I couldn’t read the ‘files like you could. What’s she like?” Lis squatted down, rifling through a stack of pants before finding a pair that would fit.

“She’s dead. I don’t want to talk about it. Can we get back to shopping please?”

“Of course. Sorry to bring up a sore subject. If you ever want to talk-.”

“I won’t,” Carth cut in.

“You know where to find me.” Lis turned back towards the racks and shelves of clothing, grabbing a blouse from one of the racks. She twitched her lips in thought as she stared at it.

_ Do I really need this? But it might be useful to have something other than casual wear to wear. I mean, a t-shirt and utility pants can only last me for so long. Well, they’ll last a long time, but can I really wear only that in the Upper City? There might be a time when I need something nicer. I don’t know when that time would be, though. It’s not super expensive, so if I get just one of them it wouldn’t be so bad... _

“Are you done trying to burn a hole in the shirt with your eyes? Do you want it or no?” Carth asked, walking around her and grabbing the cart.

“I’m trying to decide whether I need a nice shirt or not. Lemme think.”

“Buy it. But get the blue one, not the orange; orange draws too much attention. We don’t need any of that.”

“But maybe we do. If we are constantly acting like we’re hiding, we’re gonna look suspicious. But if we just act like we belong here, we might be able to escape notice,” Lis replied, sorting through the shirts to find one in her size. 

“Just don’t get in cantina brawls and we should be fine. Come on, put the shirt in the cart and we can keep shopping for more clothes. We need more pants. And I need to find a nice shirt to go with yours.”

Lis sighed, finally tossing the orange blouse into the cart. “You should get an orange one too, to go with your hangar jacket.”

“I don’t think these are quite my style, Lis.” To show her, he picked up one of the shirts from the rack, holding it up to his chest. Not only was the torso not wide enough, the neckline was a vee that would have dipped even lower on Carth than on his companion due to stretching.

“Maybe you’d start a trend, Carth; pretty soon all the young Tarisian Upper City men would be wearing beefcake shirts,” Lis laughed. 

“Let’s not and say we didn’t.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

Lis stopped infront of an almost barren shelf, only a few items populating the metal. Her eyes lighted onto a skein of yarn, the same dull grey as the skyway, and two knitting needles, one red and the other green. She stared, her mind whirring and clacking.

“Oh... I- I remember,” she whispered, reaching out a hand to gently touch the yarn.

_ ⪛ Peace concentration harmony pride joy ⪜ _

_ She sat in a large room, deserted and silent save for the sound of knitting needles clicking and a sleeping kath hound. Chairs were spread through the room, lining the walls. Floor to ceiling length windows took up a portion of one wall, looking over the grasslands. She sat with her back against the doorpost, the yarn unrolling in a bowl placed on her outstretched legs.  _

_ Pausing from her work, she set aside the soon-to-be scarf to take a drink of water. Footsteps approached from the hall behind her.  _

“Lis? Lis! Snap out of it.”

Lis blinked rapidly, reaching out blindly for something to support her and finding Carth’s arm.

“I’m- I’m okay,” she said, standing up straighter. “I just had a, a flashback I guess you’d call it. It was weird; I’ve never actually had one before.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Carth asked, moving to shield her from any passing shoppers.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It just took me by surprise. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

Lis didn’t move though, still staring at the yarn. She picked it up quickly, tossing the needles in as well before heading to the register. Maybe she’d try her hand at knitting while she was stuck on the planet.

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“What do you mean it’s $250 credits?! This stuff you could get for half the price in the Middle City!” Lis exclaimed, looking at the total on the register. “What about that discount Kebla had said I’d get?”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were friends with her. She and I are good friends; any friend of hers gets a deal, of course,” Fronk said. He hastily typed into the register, the display blanking for a second before a new total appeared. It was almost exactly half of the previous total, and Lis nodded slightly as she took out the cred chit from her bag.

“Thank you, Fronk. Pleasure doing business with you,” Lis said with a smile. She took the chit back as Carth finished picking up all the bags. “You know, I can carry something, right?” She asked, grabbing one of the bags of canned food from his hands.

“Yeah yeah, you were busy. Come on, let’s get back to the apartment so we can fix the stove. As much as I love mystery meat meals, some other food sounds good.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

Lis sat back on her heels, brushing hair out of her eyes as she did. “That should do it,” she mumbled, standing up. She glanced over at Carth, who was sitting in the lone chair on the other side of the room watching her work. “Trust me, boss-man, I’m not going to blow us up. I actually know how to make a field-stove very well; I just can’t remember ever doing it before.” 

“The more you say that, the less sure of your skills I become. But I suppose there’d be worse ways to die. At least your amnesia hasn't erased all the useful stuff,” Carth laughed.

“Yeah, you're telling me. Sometimes I almost feel like a robot. I know my name, how to survive, a shit-ton of languages that I don't remember ever learning, and not much else. I suppose there's worse things, though; like being dead like our crewmates.” Lis shrugged, opening a can of soup and dumping it into a pot.

“Yeah, suppose you're right. You doing okay? After that little flashback or whatever you want to call it?”

Lis sighed as she squatted down beside the gaspipe. “Toss me your zippo, wouldcha?” She turned the burner on, lighting it quickly before holding the souppot over the flame. Carth watched her, not saying a word, waiting.

“Yeah, I'm okay. The fact I had a flashback shook me up more than the actual flashback, I think. It was weird, you know, seeing something from my past, looking through my eyes when they didn't feel like mine.” She shook her head, trying to rattle something loose in her mind.

“I didn't recognize where I was, but it felt familiar. It was this really big room, like a briefing room, but there wasn't anything in it except chairs along the walls. The middle of the room was just empty. And there were these gigantic windows I could look out of from where I was sitting on the opposite wall. Outside the windows was just grasslands as far as the eye could see, I think. There were, there were emotions attached to it; and smells, too. I could smell the wind coming in from outside, and the grass, the grass smelled so green and thick, like you could walk on it without ever really touching the ground.”

“Sounds like a great place; we could do with somewhere like that right now compared to this,” Carth said, gesturing out the small window to the city. “No idea where it was though, huh?”

“Not a clue. As hard as I try, I can't remember anything else about that place; what I was doing there, why I was there, how long I'd been there. Maybe it was Deralia, where I'm from. But I don't really remember home at all, so who knows. I just, I hope I can go back to that planet someday, wherever it is. Hopefully the memory wasn't just some weird lull during a battle, you know, and the planet's chaos now or something.”

“One can only hope,” Carth mumbled.

Lis nodded, stirring the pot of soup and watching as it started to boil. “Soup's done. Grab the bowls and I'll split it up.”


	7. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisona and Carth steal some Sith armour and venture in to the Lower City. Violence ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the prewritten chapters so updates will come eventually. School and working during a pandemic are both terribly draining of my time. Alas, if only I had neither to do.

"I guess it was a good thing I bought that nice shirt after all, eh Carth? I really think the orange works with my whole stranded-pilot-on-unfamiliar-planet look,” Lis laughed, holding up the blouse from earlier. Her heavy-duty do-all boots and black cargo pants contrasted sharply with the fashionable shirt, but fashion wasn't high on Lis' list of things to be concerned about. A nearly empty dufflebag completed the mismatched ensemble.

“Yeah, we look like a set or something. I still think buying orange was a bad idea, though,” Carth grumbled, brushing dirt off his jacket before putting it on. “We could probably sneak around with one person in orange, but two? We might be pushing our luck.”

“Luck has been with us since the moment that escape pod left the  _ Spire _ . We have been nothing but extremely lucky, and I'm convinced the universe is rooting for us somehow. I don't know why, but it is. Come on, let's go crash a Sith party.”

Lis led the way down to the skyway, which was deserted save for a few drunks and two patrolling Sith. One Sith walked towards the two Republics, and Lis felt Carth say “I told you so” behind her.

“Nice night out, isn't it?” the Sith said, his voice modulated by the helmet's speaker.

“Yes it is. It must be the dinner hour or something, with no one out and about,” Lis remarked.

“The citizens get jumpy when it gets close to dark; the curfew isn't even for a couple of hours yet.”

“Oh, we forgot about the curfew. We've been staying in our apartment most of the time since the quarantine. But we were just on our way to a party, Yun something or other from the base invited me,” Lis continued, her voice pitched low so the drunks wouldn't hear.

“I heard about that. Suppose I wouldn't notice you coming back afterwards, long as you didn't make much noise,” the soldier answered.

“We can do that. Have a good night, sir.” Lis smiled at the Sith, grabbing Carth's hand to make him follow her down the skyway.

“You're insane, you know that?” Carth whispered as they walked through the gate to the southern section of the skyway.

“Yeah, I know. But that's how I survive. Come on, boss-man, we're almost there.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“Which apartment do you think is his?” Carth asked as the turbolift doors opened. The corridor was filled with the sound of muffled music, some thumping dance beat that mimicked a heart.

“Probably the one with music blaring in it. So let's follow our ears.”

Lis stopped before hitting the doorbell, fluffing her hair and straightening her shirt. She pasted a smile on her face before ringing the doorbell, and the door quickly slid open.

“Yun! This party looks awesome! Hope you don't mind I brought my captain along; he was just going to waste his time in the cantina,” Lis yelled over the music. She glanced around quickly, noting the footlocker and dufflebags propped up against one wall.

“The more the merrier, I always say. Here, let me introduce you to some of my other friends.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

“I never knew that Tarisian Ale was so potent,” Lis mumbled, surveying the apartment's occupants. All the party-goers save for Carth and herself lay unconscious on the floor, each in a more uncomfortable position than the last.

“Well, anything will make you pass out if you drink it fast enough. They're amateurs; back in my day we could actually hold our liquor,” Carth returned.

“Alright old man, let's find some armour.”

The two fugitives started rifling through the dufflebags, searching for armour sets that would fit. Of the five bags, Lis found her set in the first.

“All these Sith are underfed,” Carth grumbled. “underfed and under-tall. Maybe pretending you arrested me would be a better plan.” Carth continued grumbling and cursing as he rummaged through the armour sets, and then as he started resizing the plating.

“That would get us into the base, and then both of us killed almost instantly once they realized who you are and that I'm no Sith soldier. These are ground-pounders' armour, boss-man; they're always underfed. I guess we could buy some wigs and make you a wookie; say you're my local guide through the Lower City.” Lis laughed at the mental image that provided, Carth bedecked in many different coloured wigs.

“I think that might well and truly break our luck. Hey, see if you can get this clasp unbuckled, would you? I can't get a grasp on it.”

The two dressed in relative silence after that, save for some more grumbling from Carth as he put the helmet on. Their clothes went into the dufflebag Lis had brought with, joining Lis' normal shirt and vest, some medpacs, grenades, extra blasterpacks, and various odds and ends of varying importance.

“It smells absolutely rancid in this thing. Don't they teach kids how to wash their gear these days?”

“The electronics in these things would fry the minute you tried to clean it out. It's probably been used by at least three people before you, you know. I'm pretty sure they just hand out dead soldiers' armour pieces until they're too broken to use. 'Oh, this guy got his head cut off? All the other pieces are fine! This guy got a lightsaber to the junk? All the other pieces are fine!”

“I really didn't want to think about that at all. Thanks for that. Come on, let's get a move on; I think there's going to be a shift change soon so we should get to the elevator around that time.”

“Maybe I should do the talking, boss-man; the Sith might recognize your voice or something, even with the modulator they've got in these buckets.” Lis pulled her own helmet on, the heads-up display flashing to life as she did. She blinked quickly three times, and the numbers that had appeared in the center of the view vanished just as fast.

“Sounds good to me. Lead on, uh, lieutenant.” Carth slung the dufflebag over one shoulder as he spoke, following Lis out into the apartment complex and turbolift.

The masquerading Sith were ignored by all on the skyway, not even the Sith patrols paying them mind as they walked by. A minute later, the Republic soldiers found themselves at of the elevator.

“We need to head down to the Lower City,” Lis said, stopping infront of the soldier guarding the lift.

“Another patrol, eh? That's the third one today. Wonder we keep sending squads down there; we should just lock the door and let the swoop gangs get rid of each other for us,” he replied. “Well, good luck down there. Hope to see you topside.”

The elevator security doors clanked open, the inner doors sliding open with an ominous whoosh. Lis stepped onto the platform first, her nervous swallowing hidden by the helmet and neck guard. Carth followed close behind, nodding at the Sith as the doors began to close slowly.

“It feels like being buried alive,” Lis mumbled. She braced herself against the wall before the elevator jolted to life, the floor shaking beneath their boots for a moment before evening out.

“I'd rather not think of being buried right now, Lis. I think this is going to be a long ride down; we have to get through the Middle City too.” Carth sat on the railing against one of the elevator's walls, his blasters dangling from two fingers.

“Don't tell me we have to switch elevators. I don't know if I could find it, to be honest.”

“I think it's all one elevator shaft from the top of the planet to the ground. Maybe you could slice the panel and get us all the way to the Under City. Wake me up when we get there, by the way.”

“I guess I could try, though honestly I'm not sure I'd want to risk hitting the wrong wire and sending us plummeting to our deaths.” Lis squatted down in front of the electronics panel beside the door, slowly feeling around the edges for a seam to pull the panel off.

“Weren't you just earlier talking about how the universe is rooting for us somehow?”

“Yeah, and weren't you just saying having two people wearing orange on the streets was pushing our luck? I managed to sweet-talk a Sith into letting us be out past curfew while we were both wearing orange, remember? Besides, this panel doesn't want to come loose, so I couldn't slice it if I wanted to. They've got the seam too tight to get off without something flat. We're going to have to actually do this the normal way. Hopefully we can just hit the down button when the doors open and keep going.”

“I've got a bad feeling about this.”

_ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ _

The elevator doors slid open slowly, the security doors beginning to open a moment later with a groan. Dripping pipes were visible from inside the elevator, as well as another door straight ahead.

“Good gooks, if the air smells this bad with the filter on the helmet, I'm afraid to take the bucket off,” Lis coughed. “Let me see if there's a down button out here.”

She stepped out of the elevator quickly, looking to both sides of the doors for buttons.

“Guess this is as far as we go on this ride,” she continued.

Carth hopped out of the way of the slowly closing doors, looking around what little was visible of the Lower City. “Shall we switch back to our civvies?”

“No, we might be able to get on the next elevator the same way we got on this one. First we have to find it. Let's go-.” She stopped speaking as she pulled her left glove off, scratching the palm of that hand frantically. It didn't itch so much as it had a weird pressure, like someone had grabbed her hand by holding it between two fingers to the palm.

After a moment the feeling went away, and Lis looked up to see Carth staring at her.

“My hand itched; really bad. Anyways, let's head left.”

As the two rounded the corner they stopped, confronted with the sight of six aliens arguing. They were yelling about Black Vulkars and Hidden Beks, and then drew their weapons. Lis and Carth stood by silently as they watched the aliens fight, one side winning handily. Once that skirmish was over, the remaining aliens turned towards them.

“Sith? What are they doing down here?!” One shouted.

Lis ducked as a blasterbolt sailed past her head. She started running towards the gangmembers, Carth laying down coverfire from behind a corner.

One of the aliens was armed with a short baton and decided to face Lis. He was no match for her, her long sword stabbing him through the ribs as the short sword in her left hand parried his baton. She turned towards the next alien, who was attempting the less risky method of shooting her while his companion fired at Carth. Carth was focused on shooting back at his assailant, leaving Lis to manage her own.

“You Sith don't belong down here!” The alien shouted.

“Yeah, well, I'm not a Sith,” Lis replied. She faintly registered the sound of someone screaming in the background as she drew closer to the gangmember.

_ Not Carth. Alien. Ryl. Not my problem. _

Lis smiled behind the mask of her helmet as she dodged one bolt and then another, coming up under the blaster of the alien and kicking him in the knee. He went down hard, landing on his back. She stomped on his blaster hand, knocking the weapon out of his hand. She left her foot on his hand, her swords bracing his neck.

“What gang are you?” Lis growled, the swords coming a hair's breadth closer to the killing vein.

“Black Vulkars. We rule the Lower City.”

“Who's your leader?”

“Brejik. He's the best, better than old man Gadon Thek.”

“I think I'll be the judge of that. Thanks for the names, though.” She inclined her head a moment before bringing the blades together, the alien dying with a gurgle.

“Did you catch those names?” She looked up at Carth as he walked closer, his blasters returning to their holsters slowly.

“Yeah. Can't say that I recognize them though. Come on, it looks like the elevator is ahead.”

“Before we head down, I think it's time we met these gangs.”

Carth walked on, Lis trailing behind as she wiped her blades off quickly.


End file.
